9 of the worst smelling flowers in the world: Eastern skunk cabbage

9 of the worst smelling flowers in the world

Eastern skunk cabbage

This flower's name gives away what the bloom smells like: roadkill skunk. It grows naturally in the wetland soils of eastern North America, and lures in flies and stoneflies for pollination. One of the more interesting adaptations of this plant is that it is also capable of generating its own internal heat. The higher internal temperature not only allows the flower to come up through snow-covered ground, but it may also help to attract pollinators by mimicking the heat released by a fresh corpse. If you can stomach it, the plant is also known to have medicinal properties, and has been used for the treatment of asthma, epilepsy, coughs and rheumatism.